The Gray Jedi
by SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Ben Solo meets Rena Kre'fey when he's just ten years old. She has visions of the future, so Luke takes her in to train her. Ben and Rena quickly become close friends as they grow up and learn together. But their friendship may not survive when Rena's future vision shows her the man Ben will someday become.
1. Chapter 1

Ben rolled his eyes. "Why can't I just stay on the ship?"

Luke glanced back at his padawan. "As a future Jedi Knight, you need to be able to interact with people you are unfamiliar with." He began to walk away. "Now come along."

Ben groaned, but he followed his master. After walking for a few minutes, Ben peered up at the man. "Why didn't we just land the ship closer to the town?"

"Scared of a little bit of walking?"

Ben scoffed. "No." He pressed his lips together, and stayed silent as they kept walking. After another fifteen minutes, they reached the town. Luke turned to the ten year old and handed him a few coins. "What are these for?"

Luke chuckled. "It's a test. I want to see how you choose to spend money when you can use it on whatever you want." He pointed to a small building. "I'll be in there, discussing boring things with boring people. You're more than welcome to accompany me, or you can explore a little bit. Either way, we need to be back on the ship before nightfall."

Ben nodded. "I'll look around a bit. I don't like boring meetings."

Luke nodded, and headed towards the building that he had pointed out. Ben turned away from his master, and looked around. One building in particular caught his attention, since it was bright purple. He wandered closer, and saw that it was a small restaurant. He looked down to see how much money he had, and was pretty sure that it would be enough to at least get a drink. The non-alcoholic kind, of course.

The kid entered the establishment, and went over to an empty table. He sat down, and waited patiently for someone to come over. As he waited, Ben felt a sudden jolt. It felt like something related very powerfully to the force. A moment later, the feeling was gone.

As Ben was sitting there, he heard the heavy footsteps of someone running over. A little kid was running toward him. Ben didn't have time to study her appearance, because as soon as she reached him, she grabbed his arm and yanked him out of his seat.

Ben's first instinct was to force-push the girl away, but Luke had warned him against using the force openly outside of an emergency. He let himself get pulled by the girl, who tugged him down, and a moment later, the window by Ben's seat shattered, and there was a person now slumped over the table where Ben had been sitting.

If the strange girl hadn't pulled him away, he would have been hit by thick shards of glass, and then by the person who had been thrown through the window. Ben turned to the girl in amazement. "How did you know that that was going to happen?"

The girl looked up at Ben and shrugged. But the boy hardly noticed the motion, because he was mesmerized by her eyes. They were a beautiful gold color, and her long hair was shiny silver. The girl looked at Ben curiously. "I wonder what makes you important."

Ben tilted his head. "What?"

The girl sighed. "Unless I'm trying to see, I only see things that are important."

Ben's eyes widened. "Wait, are you talking about being able to see the future?"

The girl shrugged again. "I just sometimes see things that happen later. I saw you getting hurt from the window, so I pulled you away."

Her cheeks were red, and she was breathing hard. Ben frowned. "Did you run all

the way across town, or something?"

The girl shrugged. "Pretty much."

Ben couldn't help looking amazed. "Thanks for saving my life. I'm Ben Solo."

The girl smiled. "I'm Rena Kre'fey." She stood up, and brushed dust off of her pants. She turned and started to leave the restaurant.

Ben stood up quickly. "Wait!" She stopped and turned around, looking at him curiously. "You just saved my life. Let me at least thank you properly. Have lunch with me."

Rena grinned. "Okay." She hurried back over to the older boy and grabbed his hand. "But not here. I know a much better place." She pulled him outside, and walked for a few minutes. They stopped outside of a large house, and Rena gestured to it. "This is where I live." She pulled Ben up the front steps, and inside the building.

Ben looked around at everything. It was a large house, but overall, it didn't seem very personalized. It also had a strange feeling to it, like something very loud was being muted. There wasn't a single thing that looked like it couldn't be left behind if there was an emergency or something. "How long have you lived here?"

Rena shrugged. "My whole life. So five years."

Ben stopped. "You're only five?"

She nodded. "Yup. Now come on."

She led Ben to a large kitchen area, where there were two adults already sitting at the table. They both looked up in surprise. The man stood, and walked over to the kids. Ben could see where Rena got her eyes from. Her mother appeared to be human, while her father appeared to be Ferroan. He had pale blue skin, white hair, and dark gold eyes.

He looked at Ben curiously. "Rena, who's your friend?"

Rena grinned. "This is Ben." She glanced at Ben. "And Ben, these are my parents."

Ben nodded politely. "Nice to meet you."

Rena shoved Ben towards an empty chair at the table. Once he was seated, she looked up at her dad. "Can you make us something to eat? Please? I promise Ben that he'd get something better here than at the Twinkler."

The man laughed. "Well, I'm pretty sure that you could get something better anywhere than at the Twinkler. But sure." He went over to the cooking area.

Rena's mother didn't look so amused. She had smooth black hair, light skin, and piercing blue eyes. She stood abruptly, and left the room. Ben turned to Rena, who took a seat next to him, handing him a glass of water. "Did I do something wrong?" He took a sip of his drink.

Rena shook her head. "No. Mommy just doesn't like force-users."

Ben nearly choked on his water. "What?"

"You know, people who use the force. Like you. Daddy calls Mommy 'force sensitive', which means that she can feel the force, I think. Daddy says that I inhe… in hit… that I got that from her."

Ben coughed a few times, then stared at Rena in disbelief. "So even back at the restaurant, you knew?"

The girl nodded. "Yup. There's no one else in town that has enough force to feel, but then today we could suddenly feel two people with it. You and your daddy, right?"

Ben shook his head. "That wasn't my dad, that was my uncle. My mom and dad put me into his care when they learned that I'm a force-user. He's training me," Ben leaned forward and lowered his voice. "To be a jedi knight someday."

Rena raised one eyebrow. "What's a jedi knight?"

Rena's father returned to the table then, and he heard Rena's question. He looked at Ben for a moment, sizing the boy up, then turned his attention back to his father. "You know all those stories that I tell you? About before I met your mother? Well, those were all things that I did as a jedi."

Ben looked at Rena's dad with wide eyes. "What? You were a jedi?"

The Ferroan nodded. "Yup. But I left the order when I met Rena's mom. See, there were rules saying that Jedi were not to fall in love and get married. I fell in love, so I left. And I count my blessings for that everyday, since just two years later, almost every jedi was killed."

Ben couldn't think of anything to say in response to that, so he just stared at the man with wide eyes. He'd always been told that Luke was the last jedi, but apparently that wasn't true. There had been another one living a peaceful life this whole time. He gulped. "There shouldn't be a rule about falling in love."

The man shrugged. "Well, with the jedi order no longer around, I'm sure that you don't have to follow all of those rules." He put down the two plates he had been holding. "Anyways, here's your lunch."

Rena grinned. "Thanks!" She began to eat, and when she saw that Ben was just staring at the table, she gave him a playful shrug. "C'mon, you were the one that wanted to eat. And my daddy's the best cook in the whole galaxy!"

Ben nodded, and began to eat, but his mind was somewhere else. Love had saved Rena's father. Him defecting meant that he wasn't killed, which meant that Rena could get born, which meant that she could save Ben.

Rena's mother was force-sensitive, which Ben was going to assume meant that she was a force-user as well. He could hardly believe it, that there was an entire family of jedi just chilling on Lothal.

Once they were finished eating, Rena led Ben back to the front door. "Do you need any help getting back to where you're supposed to be?"

Ben hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah."

Rena took his hand again, and walked back through town. It's not that it was particularly complicated place, but there was a lot of space between residential homes, and Ben was afraid of accidentally heading off in the completely wrong direction, since he couldn't see where the next house was.

They returned to the center of town, and Rena led Ben all the way back to the Twinkler. She let go of his hand, and took a few steps back. "Well, I guess this is goodbye." Before Ben could respond, Rena gasped in pain, and fell to her knees. Ben knelt down to help her, and she opened her eyes tiredly. She jumped up. "We have to hurry!" Then she turned and took off.

Ben ran after her, and felt a twisting in the pit of his stomach when he saw that they were running towards the building Luke had said he was going to be in. When they got there, the door was locked. Rena tugged on the door handles, but they wouldn't budge.

Ben didn't see anyone, so he used the force to shove the doors open. Rena rushed inside, Ben right on her tail. She was able to navigate through the large building with perfect ease, and didn't even pause outside of the heavy doors. She raised her arms so that the doors were pushed open when she ran into them.

There, Ben saw that Luke was sitting at a large table with several other people. Ben watched as Rena quickly scanned all of the faces, trying to spot the person in danger, or the person causing the danger. Her gaze focused on a red man with horns sitting next to Luke.

She leaped across the table, sliding over it, and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt. When momentum forced her off of the table, she pulled him down with her. Luke and the woman on the other side both stood up, trying to avoid the tussle.

Then the red man pulled out a blaster, and aimed it up at the guy sitting at the head of the table. Rena shoved herself in front of the blaster, and tried to grab it away. The man, still on the ground, kept trying to refocus the blaster on the man at the head of the table, who was now being led out of the room.

The guy on the ground saw that he only had one shot, so he fired. Rena jumped up, and the red beam of light got cut off. Then a bunch of armed men were grabbing the blaster away, handcuffing the shooter, and leading him away.

Ben ran over to Rena. "That was amazing. You just saved that guy's life!"

Rena nodded slowly, her movement showing her fatigue. "That guy happens to be our mayor. He's a pretty cool guy."

Ben frowned. "Hey, what's-" Rena moved her hand aside, the one that was wrapped around her stomach, and Ben's stomach turned at the sight of all that blood. "Oh my god." He looked up, and his eyes met Luke's.

The knight caught Rena as she fell back, and he gently lowered her to the ground. He placed his hands over the injured spot, and closed his eyes. His face went blank, so he looked like he was just calmly meditating. Luke peered up after a moment, and gestured for Ben to join him.

Ben knelt down, and pressed his hands down next to Luke's. He closed his eyes, and imagined that the hole in Rena's stomach would just seal itself shut. As he envisioned it, he felt something else slip into his thoughts. He brushed it aside, knowing that force-healing required concentration. A few minutes later, Rena coughed, and blood dribbled out of her mouth. Her eyes fluttered open, and Luke helped her sit up. She looked down at the hole in her shirt, then wiped the blood off her mouth with the back of her hand.

She looked at Luke. "You just saved my life."

"You just saved the life of a very important man. I'd say it's about equal. But how did you know that there was an assassin in the room?"

Rena shrugged. "I saw it."

Ben nodded. "She can see the future. She saved me earlier."

"That's rather fascinating." He looked at Rena. "You know, it's nearly impossible to tell from here, but the force is very strong with you. I could only see that when I was healing you though. It's like someone put a big blanket over you to stop others from sensing the force. You could probably be a jedi someday, if you began training."

Rena's eyes widened. "Really?" Then they dimmed. "I don't think my mommy and daddy would want me to go."

Ben looked at Rena. "But what do you want?"

She tilted her head to think about it. "I want to be a jedi! That would be so cool!"

Luke nodded. "Then let me speak with your parents."

Rena nodded eagerly, and she led Ben and Luke back to her house. They went inside, and she brought them to the kitchen. She motioned for the two men to sit down. "I'll go get daddy." She hurried out of the room, and returned a few minutes later with the Ferroan.

He looked at Luke with a lot of tension. He cautiously sat down. "May I help you?"

Luke nodded. "Perhaps. Do you know what the force is?" The man nodded. "Well, did you know that the force is very strong with your daughter?" The man stared at Luke searchingly. Finally, he nodded. If Luke was surprised by that, he didn't show it. "My name is Luke Skywalker. I'm a jedi knight, and I wish to train your daughter in the ways of the jedi."

The man sighed. "I don't think that that's possible. My name is Odan Kre'fey. I was also a jedi knight at one point. I left the order when I fell in love, breaking one of the biggest rules. My wife was also a… jedi, and our daughter was born a force-user as well. Before my wife and I ran off, we knew that we could be tracked down too easily. So we had a close friend go into our minds, and block our connection with the force. There was no one left to block Rena when she was born, but she felt like she had been born blocked off already. I just don't think that you would be able to train her."

Luke nodded. "I understand that, but I'd still like to try."

Odan hesitated. "I think that that's really up to Rena."

The little girl nodded eagerly. "That's what I want, daddy."

He sighed. "Then it isn't my right to stop you." She cheered, and Odan pulled her into a hug. "Be careful, okay? Make sure to send word occasionally so that we know you're alright. Now why don't you go pack a bag?"

Rena nodded, and scrambled away. Odan turned to Luke and Ben. "You take care of her. She doesn't have the best self-preservation instincts, so you'll have to watch out for her. Keep her safe. Keep us updated on her whenever you can. And you'd best leave before my wife wakes up from her nap. It'll take me a while to get her used to the idea, and by then, you're best off being long gone."

Luke nodded carefully, and stood up, motioning for his padawan to do the same. "Your daughter is in good hands, I promise."

Odan didn't smile. "I suppose that's something I'll just have to wait and see for myself."

Rena bounced back into the room a minute later, a small bag in one hand. She ran over to give her dad one last hug. "Bye daddy. I'll talk to you in a little bit, okay?"

Odan kissed the top of her head. "Alright. You'd best be on your way."

Rena nodded, and led Luke and Ben out of the house. Odan collapsed back into his chair, and rested his face in his hands. Explaining all of this to Zannah was going to be rather difficult.

Rena practically skipped all the way back to the ship. She couldn't wait to start her adventure. She'd heard all about adventures before, mostly from her father, and she'd always wanted to experience one for herself. Hopefully, this would be as fun as she imagined it would be.


	2. Chapter 2

Rena looked around, her nose wrinkled up. "Where are we?"

Ben grinned. "This is a planet called Dagobah. It's where Luke trained when he was young." At a raised eyebrow from the jedi, the kid quickly amended his statement. "It's where Luke trained when he was young _er_."

Rena giggled. "So where exactly are we going? If you guys expect me to live in a tree or something-"

Luke chuckled. "Nah, it's nothing so fancy. Just a little place I put together for me and my padawan to share."

Rena looked around curiously, like she was expecting a little house to just pop up out of nowhere. But instead, the trio kept walking, and Rena looked disappointed that physical effort was required to get where they needed to go. She looked up at Ben. "Are there any other padawans and jedis left?"

Ben shrugged, then shook his head. "I don't think so. And if there are, then they've done an amazing job of hiding themselves."

Rena looked up proudly at that statement. "My daddy did an amazing job hiding. I didn't even know until he told you." After walking for a while longer, Rena, exhausted from a combination of everything, tripped, and went flying forwards. Without even thinking about it, Ben used the force to catch her, and gently lower her to the ground. He looked up at Luke.

Luke nodded. "We should rest for the night. There's nothing particularly dangerous around here that we would have to worry about." He slid the heavy backpack off of his shoulders, and it landed on the ground with a loud thump. He bent down and began to rifle through it. He pulled out two sleeping bags, and tossed them at Ben. "Set these up for you and Rena."

Ben realized that Luke hadn't been expecting to bring another person along, so he hadn't really been prepared for that possibility. "But what about you, Master?"

Luke raised one eyebrow. "I'm sure that I will be just fine."

Ben shook his head, and tossed one of the sleeping bags back to his uncle. "I'll just share. Your old man bones can't take a night on the ground without anything to cushion you." He sighed. "Your old _er_ man bones, I mean."

Luke chuckled, but he accepted the bag. "Very well then."

After a lot of maneuvering, and no help from his laughing master, Ben managed to get himself and Rena into the sleeping bag, and it wasn't too uncomfortable. He closed his eyes. "Good night, Master."

"Good night padawan."

The next morning, Luke woke up before the children, and he smiled at the sight. Ben had his arms wrapped around Rena like she was a giant teddy bear. It made for a rather adorable sight.

Luke decided to let the pair sleep longer while he checked in with Ieyyah. It took a moment before his call was answered, and then Luke got to witness the tired looking gran. All three of her eyes were squinting in Luke's direction. "Why the hell are you calling me so early in the morning?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure that that's not how you're supposed to talk to a noble jedi knight." He couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice, though, ruining the stern affect he was going for. "Just out of curiosity, I have two questions for you. One, is my sister still visiting on Centaxday?"

"Uh yeah, as far as I know. And what's the other question that was so important you thought it would acceptable to wake me up so early?"

Luke raised one eyebrow. "Is that room next to Ben's still empty? I know you've been talking about filling it forever, but every time I check, you'd never gotten around to it-"

Ieyyah's eyes widened. "Wait just one minute there. Are you saying that you've actually found another force sensitive kid? This is incredible. We've got to tell General Organa right away. Right, sir?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, that'd probably be the smartest choice. Hopefully she can get here sooner than we'd planned. Maybe she could even stay a few days. Force knows she needs a vacation." Luke couldn't be bothered to reprimand Ieyyah when she began to dance around her room, shouting random words that was in her native language, though Luke could still understand the meaning behind the words.

Luke resisted the urge to jump when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He looked over his shoulder, and found himself peering up at Rena. He motioned for her to sit down next to him, and she did. It was rather unnerving to not be able to sense people through the force, even if it was just one person. Rena looked at his communicator. "Who're you talking to?"

Luke smiled. "That's my friend, Ieyyah. She's in charge of keeping everything neat and orderly in the temple."

Rena looked at him curiously. "'The temple'?"

Luke shrugged. "I guess it's not technically big enough to really be considered a temple, but that's what we call it. It's a place for jedi to train and learn. It's supposed to be a place of peace, one where those even outside the order could find sanctuary. Do you understand what that means?"

Rena pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She finally nodded hesitantly. "I think so? Is it like the Twinkler? Everyone's allowed in there, and you're not supposed to start fights, or you'll get kicked out."

Luke looked startled for a moment, that a five year old was comparing his temple to a bar. But overall, it wasn't the worst comparison she could have made, and when he thought about it, it did seem pretty accurate. "I guess it is like that a little." He looked at Rena seriously. "And you're okay with living there? In the temple?"

Rena sighed. "It would probably be a little better if we didn't have to walk so far to get there."

Luke laughed. "I'll keep that in mind next time I'm building a temple meant for an entire jedi order."

Rena frowned, but then immediately brightened up again. "So how soon will it take for me to be a jedi like my Daddy?"

Luke raised one eyebrow. "Well, that's kind of a loaded question. There's a lot of different factors that need to be considered. FIrst of all is whether you'll ever be able to unblock your connection to the force-"

Rena suddenly jumped up and pulled Luke to his feet, he dropped his communicators in surprise. She pulled them both back a few steps, and Luke watched as the little device crackled with electricity, and sparked all over. That would have given his hands pretty serious burns.

Luke looked down at Rena in awe. He knew that it was possible for force sensitive people to occasionally, maybe once or twice in their whole life, have some kind of vision of the future. But Rena was in an entirely separate category. He shook his head, still looking amazed. "I'm still not sure I entirely understand your gift. Could you maybe try and explain it to me?"

Rena tilted her head, and a look of intense concentration crossed her face as she tried to figure out how to properly explain. She shrugged. "I don't know. It's like how you normally breath without thinking about it, but then when you do think about it, you can control your breathing." She looked frustrated and unsatisfied with that analogy. "Er, I don't know. I see things that are important, but other than the important things, I can choose whether or not I'm trying to see something." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't really describe it."

Luke smiled. "No, you did great. I think I do understand it a little better now, thank you. So if I asked you to look at my future, could you?"

Rena sighed. "Just your entire future is a really, uh, big thing. If you ask me for something specific, then I could see it. Like if you have a question about a certain event or moment, but just asking me to see your whole future would have too much. It would take me a billion years to see everything." She tilted her head. "Do you? Have a question about what's going to happen?"

Luke shook his head. "No, just a few more questions about your gift, if that's okay?" Rena nodded. "Does it feel painful when you see what's going to happen?"

Rena shook her head. "Just like breathing, remember? It just sort of happens. No one looking at me would know that anything's different. I can see an entire conversation in like… um… a second? Maybe?"

Luke nodded. "Can you see your own future?"

Rena hesitated on that one, and Luke was immediately further intrigued. She squinted into the distance, like she would be able to get her answer from there. She shrugged, and began to pace back and forth in small steps. Finally, she stopped in front of Luke, and put her hands on her hips. "So how long is it going to take us to get to the temple? I still don't understand why we parked so far away, but whatever."

A moment later, there was a slight rustling, and then soft footsteps. Luke looked up, and saw Ben walking over. He stretched his arms up over his head, allowing his shoulders to pop, and yawned. He walked over until he was standing between Rena and Luke. "So how long is it going to take us to get to the temple? I still don't understand why we parked so far away, but whatever." He looked down at the five year old. "It's a good thing Luke stopped to rest last night, because you fell asleep while you were walking."

Rena nodded. "Yeah. Or maybe I was just trying to give you a break, because you're feet were killing you."

Ben grinned. "I didn't even say that."

"But you were going to."

Luke nodded at the kids. "Alright, time to pack up your things. We need to get to the temple before Ieyyah thinks that some terrible fate has befallen us." He gestured to the destroyed communicator as he went to pick it up.

Ben looked at the device in concern. "What happened?"

Luke shrugged. "I'll have to fiddle with it a bit when we get back to the temple to know for sure."

Once they were all set, Luke once again wearing the heavy backpack, the trio set off, and arrived at the temple about an hour later. Ieyyah immediately rushed out to greet them. "Oh, you're all okay!" Then her gaze focused on Rena. She walked over to the little girl, and crouched down so they were about the same height. She reached out one hand. "Hello. My name is Ieyyah. If you ever need anything around here, don't hesitate to let me know."

Rena looked down at the extended hand, then glanced back at Luke and Ben. They just stared at her, unsure of what she was trying to figure out. She turned back to Ieyyah. She took the hand, and pressed a kiss to the back of it. Ieyyah made a surprised sound in the back of her throat. "Uh, I'm Rena." She looked embarrassed as she seemed to realize that that hadn't been the expected response, and she took a few steps back. "Uh, sorry, sorry."

Ieyyah shook her head. "No it's fine. It just means that we finally have someone with manners living in this place."

Ben crossed his arms over his chest. "Hey!"

Ieyyah chuckled, and stood up. "Follow me. I'll show you to your room." She began to walk, and Rena quickly hurried after her. After a few minutes, Ieyyah unlocked a door, and it opened into a plain room. There was just the basics, a bed, a dresser, a desk, and a closet, and it wasn't a terribly large space. In fact, it was much smaller and more bare than Rena's bedroom back home.

She looked over at Ieyyah. "Thank you." She walked over to the bed, dropped her bag on the floor, then flopped down onto it. It wasn't the most comfortable bed she'd ever slept on, but she could survive with it. When Rena realized that Ieyyah was still standing there, she looked up with a raised eyebrow. "So when's dinner?"

Ieyyah looked away when she realized that she had been staring at the girl. The kid didn't seem to be particularly special, but then again, Ben didn't look spectacular in any way, and yet he was still a pretty special kid.

The gran shook her head. "Sorry, but I don't know. I just thought you might want to meet back with Master Luke downstairs."

Rena jumped up. "Alright." She left, and this time, walked in front of Ieyyah, who watched as the girl navigated perfectly, despite having never been in the temple before. She entered a large room with a mat floor, and walked over to Luke. Luke glanced at Ben. "You are dismissed, padawan. You did well on our mission, and you have the rest of the day to yourself. Try not to waste it."

Ben looked disappointed. "But I wanted to stay and train with Rena."

Rena looked up at Luke pleadingly. "Yeah, can't he stay? Please?"

Luke sighed. "I'm not really sure how we'll organize all of this, but alright." He motioned for the kids to sit down across from him. Once they were seated, they looked up at the man eagerly. "Rena. Ben. Today we will be practicing a very special skill. It involved putting yourself at peace with the force. Let all of your emotions flow out into the force, so that you can be without those burdens." He took a deep breath. "Now close your eyes, and take deep breaths. I want you to try and feel the force around you."

A few minutes later, the three sets of breaths had synchronized, and the room was completely silent. Luke opened one eye a bit, peering over at the kids. His eyes widened, and he had to hold in a gasp. Rena was floating a couple inches above the floor, and her hair was gently floating around her shoulders. Her face looked completely at peace, while Ben was obviously trying, but still struggling to actually achieve anything.

Ben opened his eyes for a moment, not expecting to find Luke already staring. He turned to Rena, and saw her hovering there. Now her head was about level with his, instead of being much shorter. Ben ignored Luke shaking his head, and he reached over to grab Rena's shoulders.

As soon as he did, her eyes shot open, and she fell back to the floor with a soft ' _oof!_ '. She sat there for a moment, looking dazed, before she shook her head a few times, and straightened her back. She looked at Luke. "Was I doing something wrong?" She was puzzled about why they had stopped the exercise.

Luke shook his head. "No, you were doing just fine. It was simply different than what I expected. Were you aware of the fact that you were not sitting on the floor?"

Rena blinked, then shrugged. "I mean, I know that i imagined that all of my, uh, stuff? was floating away, and I felt like it was a little weird, but I didn't think that I was actually literally floating. It's weird. A little hard to describe."

Ben laughed nervously. "You had me worried there for a moment. Don't get me wrong, you looked neat, but it was still a little weird."

Rena looked down, and spoke in a soft voice. "Oh. I'll try not to do it again."

Ben shook his head, and playfully shoved Rena to the side. "I was only worried for you. There's no reason for you to not do it whenever. It's probably a secret sign that you're actually meant to be a really strong jedi."

Rena perked up at that. "Really? You think I could be a strong jedi?"

Ben nodded. "Absolutely. Just don't go getting a big head, because there's no way you'll be better than me." Both kids laughed at that, and Luke shook his head in amusement. Maybe the jedi order really did have a chance of surviving.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben turned back with a grin on his face. "This is my favorite place in the temple. It's good for just relaxing, and not worrying about too much."

Rena looked around, obviously not very impressed. "It's a bunch of flowers." She looked at Ben for confirmation to that.

He rolled his eyes. "These aren't just ordinary flowers. They're…" Ben trailed off as he realized that he had no idea what kind of flowers they were. Well, he knew they were special, but he couldn't remember exactly what Luke had told him they were called. He cleared his throat. "They're special flowers." He looked proud of himself for figuring out something logical to say.

Rena shrugged. "You do know I come from a farming planet, right? I have seen flowers before." She walked over, and squatted down next to a little purple plant that looked like a little bell. She narrowed her eyes at it. "I hope you guys don't eat from this garden."

Ben now looked at the plant nervously. "Why?"

Rena stood up and turned around, a mischievous grin on her face. "No idea. It's not like I know anything about flowers."

Ben frowned, but when Rena just waggled her eyebrows at him, he couldn't help the laughter that came out. He let himself laugh, and Rena joined in. After their stomachs hurt too much to laugh anymore, Rena sat down on the dirt, and patted the spot next to her. Ben sat down. He glanced at her, and saw that she was staring straight ahead. "I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that you act older than five."

Rena turned to look at him, and shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe having my Mommy and Daddy be jedi makes me, uh, better? at being a jedi?"

Ben shrugged. "I dunno either." He leaned back, resting his head on his hands, and stared up at the sky. "You know, the stars look beautiful when they come out. You should be able to see them in a few hours."

"Shouldn't you finish giving me the grand tour of the place first?"

Ben sighed, and stood up, then reached down to grab Rena's hand and yank her to her feet. "Alright, then let's go. There's still a lot more left for you to see."

Rena followed him as he led her through the hallways. He made sure to walk at a leisurely pace so that Rena could keep up, even with her short legs. After a few minutes, he stopped in front of a plain door. Rena peered up at him when he made no move to open it. "What's in there?"

"This is Luke's room. You should come here if there's anything that you ever need, okay? He likes to help in anyway that he can."

Rena nodded. "Okay. Next thing."

Ben smiled. He grabbed Rena's hand and pulled her back down to the first floor. They burst into the training room together, startling Ieyyah, who had been in there cleaning up. She looked up in surprise, then raised one eyebrow. "You know, I think that you may be a bad influence on Ben, Rena. He never ran around like this before you got here."

Rena raised one eyebrow as well. "So you mean… yesterday?" She giggled. Ieyyah marched over, and picked up the little girl like she weighed nothing, and began to tickle her.

When Ben heard the shrieks coming from Rena's mouth, he was half afraid that his new friend was under attack, but then he realized that she was laughing. She was laughing so hard that tears were trickling out of her eyes, but she was laughing.

There was the sound of someone clearing his throat after that. The three quickly turned towards the door, guilty looks on all of their faces. Luke chuckled at that. "Why do you all look so serious? You don't really think that I'd punish you for having fun, do you?"

Ben crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course you'd punish us for having fun. We're not allowed to have fun when Mom and Dad are visiting soon."

Ieyyah nodded, backing up the boy. "It is true, Luke. You do have a tendency to be a bit hard on him when you know your sister is going to be coming around."

Luke sighed, and shook his head. "Well, alright. Just for this week, you don't have to do any of your normal training exercises. But that's only because you need to show Rena around, and let her get to know the place. You understand that, right? I'm absolutely not giving you a break just so you'll tell your parents that I'm being awesome, understand?"

Ben nodded eagerly. "Sure thing, Master." He grabbed Rena's wrist, and tugged her away. "Come on, let's go. The temple is huge, it's got plenty of space. But don't worry, I'll make sure you don't get lost." The kids scrambled away.

Luke glanced at Ieyyah. "You have a strange look on your face."

The gran shrugged. "I've just been thinking. I mean, what are the odds that you would come across the one planet in the galaxy that happens to have a little force user on it? Does this not all strike you as weird?"

Luke shrugged. "Is there something specific that you don't like about her?"

Ieyyah shook her head. "No, it's not that. I mean, I've only known the girl for a few hours, but I can already tell that we're going to get along. And she seems to be able to keep up with the pace of the temple as far as I can tell, which is definitely a good thing. But Ben seems to be getting close to her awfully quick. Aren't you jedi type supposed to be all against attachment?"

Luke scoffed and brushed aside the concern. "The Jedi Council was already long gone by the time I was trained, and that was nearly twenty years ago at this point. I'm not concerned with attachments. If I was, I would never be able to spend any time with my sister."

Ieyyah rolled her eyes. "If you weren't forced into it, I doubt you would ever spend any time with her. I'm not saying you don't care about her, I'm just saying that when you have a lot on your mind, you tend to forget about important things."

Luke crossed his arms over his chest. "I would not forget about my own sister," he protested weakly. Ieyyah raised one eyebrow. Luke sighed. "Okay, fine. If you weren't around, I would be taken by complete surprise whenever anything happens. Happy?"

The gran nodded. "Yes, that does actually make me happy." There was a loud crash out in the hallway, and Luke hurried out.

Rena was on the floor, an antique vase shattered around her head. She sat up, grinning. "That was great!"

Ben knelt down next to her, a guilty look on his face. "I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

Luke bent down next to Rena, and his eyes widened with concern when she pressed a hand to the back of her head, winced, and pulled it away with blood on it. She looked up at Luke with wide eyes. "Yikes."

Luke looked back and forth between the two children. "What happened?"

Ben opened his mouth and began babbling at a speed that Luke couldn't understand. Rena shushed the older boy, then crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at Luke stubbornly. "I asked Ben to demonstrate how he can make stuff fly all over the place, like some kind of wizard you know, and then I couldn't help thinking about how fun it would be for me to be the one flying through the air. So I asked him to use the force on me, but then I accidentally bumped into this big cup, and Ben got nervous, so he dropped me. It's not really a big deal."

Luke picked up Rena despite her insistence that she was alright. He looked over at Ben sternly. "We'll talk as soon as I've got Rena all sorted out."

Rena looked upset at that prospect. "But it wasn't even his fault. I told him to do it, and then I knocked over your big cup. Ben shouldn't get into any trouble at all!"

Luke frowned. "I would give you an equal punishment, but you're little, and you're still very new to the temple. You had no way of knowing that the force is not something to be recklessly used for frivolous games. And it makes matters even worse that it resulted in an injury."

The jedi proceeded to carry the five year old to the infirmary section of the temple, and laid her out on one of the beds. She just pouted the whole time, and didn't help Luke at all as he tried to dress her injury and change her into an outfit that didn't have blotches of blood in the back.

Then, once he had wrapped a bandage around her head, Rena looked up at him curiously. "Why didn't you just force-heal me the way you did when I got shot?"

Luke shrugged. "This is something not likely to kill you, and you don't seem to be in too much pain. Unless that assessment is wrong?"

Rena shook her head. "No, you're right. It doesn't really hurt. If it did, I'd probably be bawling my eyes out." She reached back to gingerly press her hands against the bandage. "How long do I have to wear this stupid thing for?"

Luke raised one eyebrow. "You're still young now, but now's a good a time as any to learn that there are consequences to your actions. Jumping in front of a blaster will get you shot. Playing around with the force will get you wearing a big bandage for as long as it takes for that wound to heal." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Though it may scar over, and you'd have another scar to add to your list. At the rate you're going at, you're going to have more scars than me by the time you're my age, and I'm missing an entire hand."

Rena looked interested at that bit of information. "You're missing a hand?" She

glanced down at where Luke's hands were hanging by his sides, and frowned. "You look like you've got two."

Luke smiled. "Luckily for me, when I lost it there was already the technology around to replace it with an exact replica. But if you try, you could feel that it's not made of flesh and blood." Luke turned towards the door that would lead back to the rest of the temple. "It's probably best if you stay in here for the night. Ieyyah will watch over you to make sure you keep yourself from getting hurt any further."

He started to walk away, and Rena's hand shot out and grabbed onto the back of Luke's robe. He looked back over his shoulder expectantly. "Don't be too hard on Ben. Please. I mean, we were just trying to have fun. And it's really more my fault than it is his."

Luke gently pried himself away from Rena's grasp, and walked away. He left and

went to go track down Ben. It wasn't too difficult, since it only took a moment of concentration to locate Ben's force signature. It was still so bizarre that Rena didn't have one. Normally, even people who weren't force-sensitive had a unique force signature, but where Rena was, there was just nothing.

Luke found Ben in his bedroom, curled up under the bed. Luke walked over and flopped onto the bed, stretching his arms up so he could rest his head on his hands. Luke let out an over exaggerated sigh. "Why you hiding under there? I haven't seen you hide under your bed since you were six and still terrified of thunder and lightening."

Ben's voice came out sounding a little shaky. "I hurt Rena. I wanted us to be friends, but instead I got her hurt. Now she probably hates me."

Luke chuckled softly. "You are like the exact opposite of correct right now. Rena doesn't hate you. I think that she wants to be friends, too. She told me to not go too hard on you, and she wouldn't do that if she hated you, or even if she were mad at you."

Ben sighed. "But even I'm mad at me right now. How can I be okay with the fact that I hurt someone that I want to be friends with?"

Luke shrugged, even though Ben couldn't see the motion from where he was hiding under the bed. "It was just an accident, Ben. Accidents do happen all of the time. No one's mad at you, I promise."

"Then why am I in trouble?"

Luke sighed. "Because, even if it was an accident, it was one caused by you ignoring the rules. If I did nothing, then it would encourage you to believe that that behavior is okay, and it's not. Do you understand that?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I get it. It's not okay to do things that will get people

hurt, right?"

Luke nodded. "Good enough for now. Now why don't you come up from under there before I decide that I like your pillow enough to just take it for myself?"

Ben scrambled up from his hiding spot and jumped onto the bed, landing on top of Luke's legs. "No way! I love that pillow! Mom made it for me!"

Luke snickered at that. "Come on, we both know your mom pretty well. Do you honestly believe that she made that for you?"

Ben crossed his arms over his chest. "Well her and Dad put in a lot of effort to find it, then. They went to a whole bunch of different planets."

Luke raised one eyebrow. "Are you sure they didn't just send Chewie out to go and find you something nice?" There was a teasing tone to his voice so Ben knew his uncle wasn't being mean.

Ben snorted. "Yeah right. Chewie wouldn't know what to get for me even if I sent him a list."

Luke shrugged. "Well, someone had to go out and fetch it last minute when your

parents forgot your birthday."

Ben got up, and began jumping up and down on Luke's legs. Ben didn't weigh very much, so it didn't hurt, but Luke made over exaggerated looks of pain, so much so that it was more amusing than anything. Then he jumped up in one smooth motion, and grabbed Ben by the waist. He began to wiggle his fingers as he tickled the kid.

Ben was too busy laughing to escape, and finally, Luke let him go, and they both plopped back down onto the bed. Ben glanced at his uncle. "So how much trouble am I in?"

Luke tilted his head. "How about, just to change things up a little bit, you'll have to accept any reasonable punishment that Rena finds fitting in the situation."

Ben's eyes widened. "You don't think that that's an absolutely terrible idea? I'd rather take a punishment from Ieyyah."

Luke stroked his beard. "Really? That's interesting." He grinned. "So then you wouldn't mind if I go see Ieyyah right now to see what she has to say on the subject?"

Ben quickly shook his head, looking defeated. "Fine, I'll take Rena's punishment."

Luke laughed to himself at that. Rena had already said that she didn't believe Ben deserved any punishment, but he was genuinely curious to see what her reaction would be to Ben's new punishment.

He slowly got up, and straightened out his robes. It was Ben's turn to laugh. "You always act extra formal after fooling around. Afraid that your reputation as a serious guy is going to get ruined?"

Luke quirked up the side of his mouth. "Always." Then he left the bedroom, and headed for his own room, which was at the other end of the hallway. He changed into his sleep clothes, and pulled his blankets up so he was tucked in properly. Hopefully having two children around wouldn't make this place too much crazier. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle that.


End file.
